


One Fine Day

by LittleLightLittleFire



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Awkward little ducks, College AU, Fluff, Life Drawing Class, M/M, unrelated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-11
Updated: 2017-03-11
Packaged: 2018-10-02 19:07:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10225082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLightLittleFire/pseuds/LittleLightLittleFire
Summary: Fili's life drawing class gets a whole lot more interesting when Ori brings his friend along to sit for them.A WinterFRE raffle prize for Vitiscouso





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Vickymaus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vickymaus/gifts).



Fili adjusted the bundle of papers he carried under his arm, carefully waterproofed against the hideous weather with a black bin bag. It was his first day back at university after a long and cozy Christmas break and his cold student digs and the attendant winter storms did nothing to ease his homesickness. 

Feeling more than a little miserable, he scurried across the campus to his final class of the day. At least the studio would be warm, he thought. 

He entered the class, nodded in greeting to a couple of the other students and started to set up his easel and equipment. Judging from the pile of woolly accessories in the corner of the room, their teacher had already arrived. Ori was a PhD student writing a thesis on Renaissance art. He was an incredibly talented artist, shy and unfailing patient, especially when moonlighting as a lecturer. And, best of all, he always brought the most interesting subjects along to their life drawing classes. 

One of Fili's favourite things to do, when tidying up his sketches at home, was to try and discern - and sometimes invent - exciting back stories for his subjects. His favourite was the little old French lady they'd drawn one week. Fili was _convinced_  that she'd been a Resistance spy during the war. 

Ori clattered through the classroom door on the heels of a couple of the other students, apologising as he tripped over his own feet. Fili looked round from his easel to see who he'd brought this week, then promptly ducked back round again. 

Shit. He was attractive. Tall, with dark messy hair, laughing eyes and a roguish grin. Basically? Fili's kryptonite. 

"Right, class," said Ori, clapping his hands, "this is Kili, who has kindly agreed to model for us today. He's a botany student and not used to us weird artsy types, so be nice, ok?"

"Can't be as weird as the people who study plants all day..." said Kili, eliciting a chuckle from the class. 

Oh fuck, thought Fili, he's Irish as well. 

With a pained sigh, Fili busied himself with rearranging his charcoals and pointedly avoided watching Kili undress. Even so, out of the corner of his eye, he could still detect the slight tremble in Kili's limbs as he pulled off his shirt. Nerves. Fili didn't blame him; undressing in front of a room full of strangers wasn't something that came naturally to most people. 

"We'll start off, as always, with a few dynamic poses just to get you all warmed up, then we'll move onto a longer one."

Ori grabbed his phone and started to set up the timer. At the lull, Fili looked up from his page and straight into Kili's chocolate brown eyes. Hurriedly, he looked away again. Yep, still attractive. Also very, _very_ naked. Fili could feel a furious blush rising up his neck. He only dared looking again when Ori had given the go-ahead and Kili had settled into his first pose. 

With a steadying breath, Fili forced himself to use his artist brain - rather than his usual brain, which was currently a gibbering, blushing pile of mush in one corner of his skull - and began to draw. 

Kili changed position every couple of minutes, so Fili had to work fast, sketching the brief outlines of shapes. The twist of the spine, the angular corners of elbows and knees and the smudges of shadow where light played over bone and muscle. Soon, Fili's hand began to cramp and he was gratefully for the rest when Ori called for a brief break as he set Kili up for the next part of the session. 

Leaning against the legs of a chair, Kili propped one arm nonchalantly on the seat of the chair and drew a knee up to his chest. 

"Comfy?" asked Ori. 

"Mm-hmm," Kili replied. 

"Alright then, half an hour starts now."

It was a good pose, Fili reflected as he sketched the brief outlines of Kili's body, and he was looking forward to seeing how this one turned out. Once the outline had been done, Fili leaned back and scratched his nose, assessing to where to start the detailing first. He was fairly sure that he'd never drawn anyone with their legs tucked the way Kili had his, so Fili decided to start there and make his way up. Fili lost himself in the challenge of getting down as much of what he could see onto the paper. So much so, that it was only when Ori called time on the class and Fili leaned back to ease out the cramps in his shoulders that he looked at the picture with different eyes. There were thumb print smudges at the corners and the lines needed some tidying up, but it was his best piece to date. Of that he was sure. 

Half-sprawled in confidence, half protectively curled up, Fili was pleased to see he'd captured both the bravado and vulnerability apparent in his subject. He was a complicated one; muscular thighs and arms and calloused hands were in direct contrast with the slight softness of his fuzzy belly. Kili had been scowling a little and looking off into the mid-distance and it gave him a thoughtful, philosophical air. 

Pride turned into squirming embarrassment as Fili realised Kili was making his way round to have a quick look at what they'd all drawn. 

"Oh wow," Kili breathed as his eyes alighted on Fili's paper. "Do I really look like that?"

"To me, yes," Fili answered and then cringed internally. 

Kili frowned and, for a second, Fili thought he'd upset him, but then his face broke out into a beaming grin. 

"I've not looked so angelic since I was five!"

"No, even then you looked like Rosemary's baby," Ori quipped. "You forget, I've seen the pictures. But this is excellent work, Fili. Your proportions are coming along nicely. Well done."

Ori moved on to the next student, but Kili remained, gazing at the picture. Then he looked down at Fili with an inscrutable expression on his face.

Eventually, Kili said, "You've got charcoal on your nose."

"Of course I have," muttered Fili. He scrubbed furiously. "Better?" he asked, but Kili had moved on to the next easel. 

Fili sagged, relieved. He packed up his things and steeled himself for the rainy and blustery walk home. 

Even the weather couldn't dampen his spirits; he was immeasurably proud of himself, glowing with pride and some small embers of residual embarrassment. 

In the end, Fili decided not to do anything to the sketch. Yes, it was slightly messy, but that just meant it had personality. He was also mildly terrified that in attempting to fix it, he would somehow ruin it. No, it was perfect as it was and it took pride of place on the corkboard above his computer. 

The memory of Fili's awkward conversation with Kili faded and on more than one occasion, Fili found himself day-dreaming about strong arms and cheeky smiles. But Fili doubted he'd see Kili again; Ori never brought the same person to sit for them twice. Plus, the university was massive and the art building was on the other side from the science building, so they were unlikely to bump into each other. Fili gave it up as a wistful fantasy, one of life's lost possibilities. 

 

The winter storms had wreaked their havoc on the campus, played merry hell with Fili's long hair and, in turn, had left, trailing spring in their destructive wake. Fili spotted crocuses and snowdrops starting to appear in scattered bursts of colour in the green spaces of the university. They reminded him of his mum's garden and home, giving him a happy little lift every time he saw them. 

On the first fine day they'd had since Christmas, Fili grabbed his camera, his laptop, a pad of paper and his watercolours and spent a happy morning pottering round the gardens, painting and photographing the new growth. 

He was just adding the finishing touches to a particularly outrageous-looking purple and yellow flower, when his stomach protested violently. Fili checked his watch; it was most definitely past lunchtime. Being a Saturday, when most normal students were sleeping off their hangovers, Fili decided to chance the university cafe. 

Nudging the door open with his boot, Fili was greeted by the tinkling of the bell above the door, and a warm waft of coffee and cake. His stomach growled demandingly again. He deposited the armful of equipment on the table by the window with the comfiest looking chairs. As anticipated, the place was mostly empty. 

Fili ordered his coffee and sandwich and went to sit back down. Opening up his laptop, he inserted the SD card from his camera and set about uploading all the photos he'd taken that morning. Just under a hundred. He'd not realised he'd taken so many. Some were shit, blurry and out of focus, but a few were really rather good. And he'd always found he could never have too many reference photos. 

Flicking through his pad, Fili started comparing some of his paintings with the pictures, scribbling notes in the corners. He was so absorbed that he barely registered the bell above the door ringing. 

"Hello again."

Fili jumped and looked up into familiar brown eyes and a familiar smirk. 

"Uh... hi."

"On the plant porn this week?"

"Pardon?"

"The flowers," explained Kili, gesturing towards Fili's work. "Y'know. Instead of naked people."

"Oh, right. Yeah," said Fili with a weak laugh. 

Kili frowned and ran a hand through his already messy locks. 

"That was really tasteless, I'm sorry. I make jokes when I'm nervous and they're almost always bad. I'll just go and order my coffee, wait for the earth to swallow me whole and leave you in peace."

Kili turned away and Fili's brain frantically scrambled for a reason for him not to leave. 

"Wait! You do botany, right?" Fili blurted. "Maybe you can tell me what this is?"

He flicked through his pad to the picture of the purple and yellow flower and handed it over to Kili. 

"I forgot to take a photo and I have absolutely no idea what it is," said Fili. 

"That, my friend, is an iris. A particularly fat one as well. I love these things, they look like little aliens," said Kili with a smile. 

"Iris," repeated Fili as he brought up more images in his search engine. "Ace. Thanks."

"This is fantastic, by the way," said Kili. "Do you mind if I have a flick through?"

"Be my guest," answered Fili. 

Settling himself in the chair opposite, Kili started to look through the sketchbook. "These are seriously amazing, Fili!" he said after a little while. "I wish I could draw like this. It'd make my lecture notes look a hell of a lot better... Y'know, I was actually hoping I'd run into you again," admitted Kili as he handed the book back over. 

"Oh?"

"Would you like to go for coffee sometime? With me?"

Fili, in a manner he hoped looked cool, calm and collected - and the complete opposite of how he felt - leaned back in his seat. "Well," he said, "we're in a coffee shop and I don't have anything planned for the rest of today. How about now?"

He was rewarded with one of Kili's beaming smiles. 

"Hang on a sec," said Fili, narrowing his eyes in playful suspicion. "I don't remember telling you my name."

"Oh, I asked Ori," Kili replied cheerfully. "Tried to get your number off him as well, but he said it'd be a breach of 'confidentiality' or some shite. He told me I'd have to ask you myself." Kili shrugged, as though it was the most obvious explanation in the world. "Weird symmetry in it, though. Fili and Kili. What's Fili short for?"

"Philip."

Kili nodded. "Fili definitely suits you better. Latte?"

"Sure." 

Fili managed to disguise his gigantic grin until Kili had gone to the counter and his back was turned. His fine day had suddenly turned much,  _much_  brighter. 

**Author's Note:**

> I can't art and I've never been to a life drawing class, so if this seems off, I apologise. 
> 
> Thanks for reading, kudosing and commenting!


End file.
